Why diphtheria is spreading in remote Indigenous communities
6/7/202621 min
Australia is facing the largest outbreak of diphtheria, dubbed a ‘disease of poverty’, in living memory. For decades, the highly contagious and life-threatening bacterial disease was almost eradicated, but now it is spreading in remote Indigenous communities around the country. Nour Haydar speaks with Indigenous affairs correspondent Sarah Collard and Indigenous affairs reporter Douglas Smith on what is being done to stop the spread of the disease
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
[gentle music] This is The Guardian.
Noor Haidar· Host0:03
[gentle music] I'm Noor Haydar, coming to you from Gadigal Land, and this is The Full Story. [gentle music] For decades, diphtheria was considered rare in Australia. The highly contagious and life-threatening bacterial disease was almost entirely eradicated. But now the country is facing the largest outbreak in living memory.
Speaker 3· Soundbite0:33
Workers left frustrated by a slow rollout of messaging, particularly in Aboriginal languages.
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:40
Very sadly is 95% of cases have been in our NT Aboriginal population. Something clearly has gone wrong here. Uh, having an outbreak that is so big of a disease that most developed countries have largely consigned to the dustbin of history.
Noor Haidar· Host0:53
[gentle music] Diphtheria is endemic in many developing countries, but numbers here have been really low since vaccines were rolled out back in the 1930s. Now, cases in Australia are in the hundreds, with the disease spreading across remote communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland.
Speaker 3· Soundbite1:18
We've got upwards of 30 people in some houses living very close together with no education, nowhere else they can go to isolate. It's heartbreaking.